By the time I graduated from high school I considered myself pretty well traveled. I had been to most eastern states, seen a bit of the southwest, spent time in Canada and even spent a few months in Brazil and two weeks in South Korea. A decade later I could add all but three states in the US and the majority of Canadian provinces as well as a few spots in Mexico. For almost 15 years I only saw places in the US, Canada and Mexico. Then in 2007 I went to southeast Asia. And by 2009 I definitely had a travel fever.

By 1992:

• Canada
• Brazil
• South Korea

1992-2006

• Mexico

2007

• Vietnam
• Cambodia
• Indonesia

2009

• Peru
• Ecuador
• China

2010

• South Africa
• Zimbabwe
• Botswana
• Zambia
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Belize

2011 should have a lot n store too!

This morning Jordan was in the elementary school spelling bee.  He didn’t win but did a great job.  The word "infinity" knocked him out when he forgot the last i.

We’re really proud of him for qualifying with the other 9 kids from the elementary school.

A few days ago Pepper said that the boiler room stunk. She didn’t know if the cats had been the cause or some workshop mayhem but she was certain there was a bad odor in there. I checked during lunch and it seemed fine to me. Then she said that she couldn’t get very hot water from the tap. Or for a shower. So I figured it must have been a problem with one of the tankless water heaters that I have installed.

The LEDs lit up on the panel when hot water was called for. I tried flipping breakers. One of them seemed to be working fine (I could feel the pipe on the outlet side warming) and the other was just letting cold water through. I checked the warranty and they were past the warranty on everything but the actual plumbing so I opened up the unit. Sure enough there was a mark on the casing from an electrical burn and the small wire that connects the heating chambers with the circuit board was blown out of the recess.

I Contacted Niagara Industries at (888) 848-2680 (well, actually since I line in Alaska I had to dial (305) 876-9010) and was told that for just $50 they would make the repair necessary. All I had to do was mail it along with a check to Niagara Industries 2540 NW 38th Court, Miami, FL 33142-6746.

Because of the way I valved each heater it was easy for me to pull the damaged one out. The heater barely fits in a flat-rate priority box. I packaged it up and shipped it off and will soon be back in hot water.

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I write about such varied stuff that I think It is time for me to consider new homes for some of my content. A personal blog can be that way – meandering from subject to subject as your interests change. I see some major themes in my posts. Some should really be spun off to their own thing. My personal site could still remain quite personal but perhaps not be so mixed. Perhaps just mentions of my posts on other subjects are thrown in. Here’s a list of the major themes that I think I have and things that I like to write about.

• Travel
• Finances
• Fitness
• Beards
• Beer
• Photography
• Projects
• Bacon

Perhaps subdomains of zieak.com will work such as phy.zieak.com for the fitness stuff or some should have their own domains like travelguidetobeer.com. Some of my topics will cross-post such as the interest in beer when I travel. But some beer you can get without traveling. And there is lots to travel that isn’t about beer.

Breaking my site apart might really help these niches grow. I have some decent photography posted but also have lots of pictures uploaded from my cell phone that are meant for documenting the moment and not to be artistic. Personal posts could talk about projects I’m working on and then finished ones can be uploaded to a more refined area. (Although perhaps those will stay with Instructables and other sites.)

Can you think of other topics that I have covered that might be worthy of a niche?

You have not lived until the day you’ve had an 11 year old serve you breakfast in bed on a Sunday morning.  Or so I have decided!

Holy pile of sushi Batman!  We went over to Rachel’s and had a feast on sushi on Tuesday night.  I ate at least one of all of them including the shrimp or smoked oyster ones.  The point being – "I don’t eat invertibrates" may not be accurate any longer.